Seed varieties with history bring fresh taste to local tables

For some local farmers, their vegetables will be looking a little different this year.

Comment

By Minta Carlson

seacoastonline.com

By Minta Carlson

Posted May. 11, 2014 at 2:00 AM

By Minta Carlson
Posted May. 11, 2014 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

For some local farmers, their vegetables will be looking a little different this year.

At the moment, their greenhouses are inconspicuous, but in a few months they will feature a rainbow of unusual plants. Those green tomatoes will in fact be ripe, and those yellow cucumbers won't have anything wrong with them. They will just be the product of heirloom seeds.

The Heirloom Harvest Project has been working to both establish an heirloom culture among local farms and to get heirloom vegetables into the hands of area chefs.

The hope is to educate the public palette to different produce through interesting food.

Leading the organization are Evan and Denise Mallet, owners of the Black Trumpet Bistro in Portsmouth; Josh Jennings of Meadow's Mirth Farm in Stratham; and John Forti, garden historian at Strawbery Banke Museum. They have spent considerable effort distributing seeds to more than 15 local farms, and organize yearly events highlighting heirloom vegetables and heritage fruits.

Most American consumers are used to the standardized taste and appearance of genetically engineered produce. Store-bought tomatoes are designed to be perfectly round and red so that they are easy to ship and store. In contrast, heirloom plants often vary in appearance and taste; they run the gamut when it comes to size, shape, and color.

A perfect example would be the forellenschluss lettuce, a favorite at Meadow's Mirth Farm, which sports dark speckles. Jennings admits that customers often ask him whether there is something wrong with this particular green.

"You have to try and convince people that no, this is actually better. They are supposed to look this way. People aren't used to produce looking cool," Jennings says.

Heirloom fruits and vegetables aren't simply grown because they look different. As indicated in their title, heirloom items are grown from seeds that have been saved from much older generations of farmers, sometimes dating as far back as the original Colonies.

"The cranberry bean is a favorite for me because we have them in a 300-year-old seed packet that was found in the walls of a South End Portsmouth house," says Forti, who has focused his professional career on teaching the value of heirloom plants.

Forti explains that heirloom plants provide a peek into the food history of our region, as well as an alternative to genetically modified seed varieties, so-called GMOs (genetically modified organisms).

Having a natural genetic variety present in a farming community helps to safeguard against blight as well. The dependence on a single strain of potato led in part to the Irish Potato Famine of the 19th century, for example. Some believe our modern society is too reliant on homogenized strains of produce such as standard corn and soy, putting us in similar danger of widespread crop failure.

Jennings says heirloom seeds can develop new ways to thrive each growing season. The Heirloom Harvest Project has been actively saving the seeds of its most successful harvests to redistribute the next year.

"All of these plants have histories whose legacies are dependent on a particular area and are fostered for their integrity," says Evan Mallet.

Mallet was first approached by the national Slow Food USA and Chef's Collaborative organizations in 2008 as a part of RAFT, or Renewing America's Food Traditions, to help re-establish America's agricultural biodiversity. The funding offered by RAFT led to the first Barn Dinner hosted by Heirloom Harvest Project.

This volunteer-driven fine dining experience has been held annually at Meadow's Mirth Farm, highlighting local meat and produce. Each year the dinner has a theme around which area chefs design dishes. Because of the popularity of the event, Heirloom Harvest Project has also introduced Farm-a-Que, which is hosted at a different farm every year. Farm-a-Que is more like a picnic — casual, conservatively priced and able to accommodate more attendees.

Jennings, with the support of the other leaders of Heirloom Harvest Project, asserts that the key to heirloom produce becoming ingrained in the Seacoast food culture is community involvement. "I think by leveraging farms and influencing farms we can effect more change, more rapidly. Then by having the chefs buy (heirloom produce), and use it, not only do we have it grown, we also have it eaten. We build a market for it. People want it and they ask for it more at farmers markets. Then more farmers start to grow."

Every year new farms have been joining the Heirloom Harvest Project, each with its own interests and focus.

Stout Oak Farm of Exeter has been exploring heritage apple varieties, and hopes to foster a small orchard of Cox's orange pippin and northern spy.

Touching Earth Farm in Kittery, Maine, has been enjoying the results of the sweet and spicy beaver dam peppers. The long pie pumpkin and Boothy's blonde cucumbers also are popular, widely cultivated heirlooms with long histories on the Seacoast.

The Heirloom Harvest Project extends an open invitation to any Seacoast farmer interested in participating. The organization only asks that farmers save a part of their successful harvests so that the seeds might be used again.

For information, contact the Mallets by e-mail at denise@blacktrumpetbistro.com.

There also are a limited number of heirloom seedlings available through the project for home gardeners. Contact Jean Pauly at rovingsprout@gmail.com.